2011 USSSA Major World Series Recap

Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth, a Major team, based out of Winter Haven, Florida wins the USSSA Major World Series again. Resmondo won all 5 of their games, one each day starting on Wednesday and ending on Sunday. They defeated an unlikely opponent, the number 16 seeded Taylormade/TM Sports/Mizuno whom they also played in their very first game of the tournament and beat 22-5. Taylormade ran off 6 straight wins over the next 4 days to make it all the way back to the championship game. In the finals Resmondo used a 15 run 3rd inning to separate from and eventually "mercy rule" a feisty Taylormade team 37-19.

Resmondo wins their 3rd World Series title in a row and do so with a display of incredible power as they hit 47 home runs in the 5 games. They hit a home run out of the baseball field every 4 swings in this tournament.

Resmondo's 15 run 3rd and 13 run 5th inning finished off Taylormade in the finals

Taylormade is actually the real story of this tournament though, as they turned around a rather dismal season with one incredible week. After losing to Resmondo by a run rule on Wednesday night, Taylormade rebounded to beat Wood Law, D2E, Suncoast, Team 454, GTL, and Laser Vision. 4 of the wins were won by 2 runs or less and the Laser Vision game was the Sunday morning loser's bracket championship where Taylormade dominated start to finish and won 18-3.

Taylormade/TM Sports/Mizuno won 6 straight in the loser's bracket to finish 2nd (not pictured due to injury is Kevin Rye)

The tournament featured good but hot and humid weather and very little rain, but was postponed on at least 3 occasions by lightning which altered the usual Major bracket a little bit. The tournament is played at the home of the Atlanta Braves spring training facility at ESPN's Wide World of Sports on the Disney grounds. The dimensions of the field is 335-385-400-385-335 although google earth shows the right field corner to actually only be 320 feet. The tournament uses the Dudley ZN Stadium ball which is 47 core and 450 compression and made for some very entertaining offense at times. If you take out the 5 Resmondo games which were blowouts for the most part and the games between the 4 highest seeds and 4 lowest seeds on Wednesday, the tournament was actually very competitive.

The tournament began on Wednesday night with those top 4 seeds playing the bottom 4 seeds. Team 454 used a 4-4, 2 homer night by left fielder Bubba Mack and a 7 run 6th inning to put down Combat/Pharmapar in the tournament opener. Then GTL used a 14 run first inning and a 4-4 performance by pitcher Geno Buck to deflate #15 seed Doerflinger 28-8 in 4 innings. In the 3rd game of the night, Resmondo got a 4-4 performance out of Conference Co-MVP Greg Connell and an additional 3 homer's from BJ Fulk, to run rule Taylormade 22-5. In the night cap, Team Combat/Laser Vision crushed Sinister 24-2 on the strength of an 8 run 2nd inning and an 11 run 6th. Lead off hitter Brett Helmer was 4-4 with a homer to show the way.

On Thursday the remainder of the first round was played in the morning and early afternoon and the second round began in the early evening. At 9 AM Thursday morning Down2EarthSports from Georgia overcame a 15-12 deficit and a 2 homer performance by Sonny's Chente Grandados to win 16-15 in the bottom of the 7th on a bases loaded hit by Sean Greer. In the next game R&M Metals used a 4-4 and 5 RBI performance by Nate Staats to beat a silent Wood Law team 15-6. In the third game of the day, EWS jumped out to 21-14 lead when their defense opened the door to a 9 run 6th for Jean Shoppe. The teams traded 4 and 5 run innings to the end with Shoppe's Chris Moon hitting a two out line shot down the left field line for the game winner 27-26. Cory Boothe had 5 RBI in the win. In the final game of the first round after a rain and lightning delay, Suncoasts Adam Rockoff hit a walk off homer to beat Darkside 20-19 in extra innings.

The second round then began with Suncoast staying on the field and playing Team Combat/Laser Vision. Laser Vision piled on a 14 run second inning and hit 6 homer's for the game to run rule Suncoast 28-8 in 4 innings. In the night cap Team 454 used a 10 run 4th to separate from Suncoast and an amazing 4-4, 4 HR, and 7 RBI performance by Team 454 left fielder Ronald "Bubba" Mack to beat them 22-12.

On Friday the loser's bracket played until early evening when the postponed games from Thursday night began. GTL hit 4 homer's in the bottom of the first inning and hit 13 homer's for the game as they beat D2E 23-7. GTL then ran into a buzz saw in the semi-finals as Team Combat/Laser Vision put up a 17 run first inning on them due to some unusual defensive lapses and LV beat them by a shocking score of 24-2.

Then it was Resmondos turn to play a double header. They first beat R&M Metals by scoring 19 runs combined in the 3rd in 4th innings and was powered by tournament Co-MVP Brian Rainwater who was 5-5 in the game. Resmondo won 30-12 in 5 innings. Next they played Team 454, the #1 'A' team in the country. Team 454 led 7-4 going into the bottom of the 5th inning when Jim Salas, Howie Krause, Greg Connell, Andy Purcell, Brian Rainwater, and Bobby Hughes all hit homers and Resmondo never looked back in a close 15-10 win. This was the only game in the last two years in Resmondos back to back Championships that a team was not run ruled by them.

On Saturday with Taylormade continuing their amazing run through the loser's bracket, Resmondo played Team Combat/Laser Vision in the winner's bracket final. Resmondo used an amazing 19 run second inning to take the life out of Laser Vision and won in 4 innings 27-7. Bryson Baker was 4-4 with 3 homers and 8 RBI in the game.

The rest of the tournament was already covered in the opening of this report. Resmondo beat Taylormade in the Championship after Taylormade dominated Laser Vision in the loser's bracket finals.

Resmondo takes on Combat/Laser Vision in the winner's final on Saturday night

I almost forgot to report that Rusty Bumgardner became the World Series hits leader surpassing Todd Joerling who set the record last year and Todd Martin who had set the record in 2009. Three straight years a new player has set the new high mark for World Series hits!

All World Team – Seth Stephens – Infield- Team Combat

Not pictured All World Team – Donavan Pokraka – Outfield- GTL

Not pictured All World Team – Chris Larsen – Utility- GTL

Not pictured All World Team – Kevin Filby – Utility- GTL

Not pictured All World Team – Bubba Mack – Outfield- Team 454

All World Team – Aaron Middendorf – Infield- R&M Metals

Not pictured All World Team – Dustin Roberts – Utility- Suncoast

Team by team notes brought to you by:

1st Place Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth GTGG

Conf 'Major' from Winter Haven, FL 5-0 Record

Resmondo wins their 3rd Major in a row and do so in dominating fashion. They out powered all of their opponents and are the only team that scores big innings consistently after the first two batters in the inning make outs. That is impressive. Krause, Fulk, and Bryson Baker all hit huge home runs and Greg Connell went over the flags and trees on Sunday morning when the temperature pushed towards 90 degrees…WOW!

Resmondo knocked off Taylormade (twice), R&M Metals, and Combat/Laser Vision all by the run rule and beat Team 454 15-10.

Don Dedonatis pulled up with what appeared to be a knee injury in one of the games but continued to play anyways. Anyone that watched knows that it was affecting his swing and obviously his defense. Hopefully he gets this knee fixed and rehabbed and gets back to playing next year.

Look for the Resmondo dominance to continue in 2012 as they are one of the few teams that will come back with most of their roster intact.

Taylormade won more games against top competition at the world series than they had all season. The team had 93 extra base hits led by offensive mvp Kevin Kennington. They also got some gutsy pitching from Brandon Jonas, some spectacular catches by Jeremy Yates, and won some close games.

Taylormade 2nd baseman Kevin Rye was injured in the Resmondo game on Wednesday. Hopefully he is ok

3rd Place Team Combat/Laser Vision/D2E/Supreme Conf 'Major' from Kent, WA 3-2 Record

Laser Vision for the first time all year looked like the team to beat after they beat Sinister, Suncoast, and GTL by a combined score of 76-12. My brother who hadn't seen any upper level softball game in a few years thought Laser Vision was the best team in the tournament and they were playing like it. Then the wheels came off and they dropped two straight. Something about the chemistry on this team changed those last two games but you'd probably have to be an insider to know what happened? Helmer, Wegman, and Stephens were putting on an offensive show up until the Resmondo game. I don't understand why Chad Munger wasn't used at pitcher since he is the only pitcher on the team that has beaten Resmondo in 2011.

GTL couldn't pull it altogether for one weekend like they did the 'A' Worlds in 2010 after they lost their edge ever since the double dip by Resmondo back at the Dudley. This is unfortunate because we know this team was capable of dethroning the champs.

GTL hammered 'B' teams Doerflinger and D2E in their first two games. Then on Friday night in their second game in a row somehow only managed 2 runs against Laser Vision? Much like Laser Visions offensive debacle against Resmondo, it seems like some team chemistry issues may have been happening with GTL. It is unfortunate that at this time of the year that it is tough to get players to focus on this tournament when everyone is talking about 2012. I can't think of any way to change that though.

The sponsorship and management of this team has always been first class though and there is noone in the game that is better at picking talent and seeing the future.

R&M Metals continued their winning ways beating Wood Law, Doerflinger, and Shoppe before dropping a 18-10 decision to GTL. Look for R&M to retool and continue on up the 'A' division ladder. In R&M's game against Doerflinger, Keith Anderson was brought in cold off the bench and hit a dramatic 3 run homer to tie the game in the bottom of the 7th inning and two batters later, lead off man Brian Zirkle hit a walkoff homer into the right field corner to win it. Catcher Nate Staats had 17 RBI for the tournament and Chris Greinert had 5 homer's and 14 RBI.

Team 454 was missing their on field "leader by example" and 'A' World MVP Bill Rhew and they didn't quite have the edge needed to upset Resmondo in a 15-10 loss. Bubba Mack's incredible tournament (13-16 with 6 homers) and season landed him a spot on Resmondo. Look for 454 to return and remain at the top of the 'A' division.

Team 454 started with solid wins over Combat/Pharmapar and Shoppe but and actually led 7-4 mid way through the Resmondo game. Then in the loser's bracket Taylormade beat them by one run.

Suncoast beat Darkside in their opener on Thursday 20-19 on Adam Rockoffs walk off homer in extra innings. Then after being delayed by lightning and rain, they dropped to Laser Vision 28-8. In the losers bracket they had a nice win over Combat/Pharmapar and then lost a one run game to Taylormade with the bats in their hands. Suncoast got monster tournaments out of All World performers Dustin Roberts and Luis Reyna who were hitting machines. Robbins, Rosenbalm, and Rockoff also put up some nice offense.

Shoppe began their Major with a come from behind 27-26 win over EWS on Thursday when backup pitcher Chris Moon hit a walk off line drive down the left field line. Then on Friday they lost to Team 454 22-12. In the loser's bracket they played a shootout game and win over Darkside 33-24 and then lost back on diamond #4 to R&M Metals in another shootout where they trailed the whole way 27-20. Shoppe was led by Matt King offensively.

Look for Shoppe to change over some of their roster all of which are great players but the wins just have not come easily. Brett McCollum, Chente Granados, and Tony Mack are all rumored to be headed Shoppes way?

Pharmapar looked a little bit like rookies as they opened the tournament by only scoring 6 runs against Team 454. But in the loser's bracket they won a big game over EWS 26-20 when Luc Chauvette, Franck Henry, and Mike Dill all homered in the same inning. Then they lost a good game to Suncoast 22-14. I give Pharmapar credit because they played the games as if they treasured being at the World Series. Sal Formosa and the core of this team has really learned how to hit the baseball fields pretty well.

D2E came to the World Series and did what few 'B' teams do, they won a World Series game in their first year. They beat Sonny's on Sunday morning when Brandon Connells double set up a Sean Greer game winning hit with two outs in the bottom of the 7th. In the loser's bracket they couldn't come close to matching GTL's 13 homer's and also lost to Taylormade back on diamond #4 when they hit "too many groundballs". Connells 5 double led the way for D2E.

Doerflinger got hammered by GTL out of the gate on Wednesday but played two games worth watching in a win over Sonny's and a last inning loss to R&M Metals. They were led by Bryce Oliveira, Stephen Lopez, Jared Goetz, and Pat Paschal all of whom hit over .700. It looks like Doerflinger was just a one year team in the Conference and there is some good talent here looking for a team for 2012.

Doerflinger right fielder Brian Munson gave it all he had to stop Zirkles walk off